Blood Sport 2
by Shade4716
Summary: The Assassin joins the second season of Blood Sport.
1. Entry

"Incoming message", a female voice booms across a tinted glass-walled laboratory, lain out like a modern day office and sectioned off with Plexiglas cubicles containing separate experiments. A holographic screen spreads across the far back wall, displaying the insignia of the Irken Elite. The insignia fades, and is swiftly replaced by the image of the Irken Tallests. A lanky, feminine figure strides down the center hallway, and stops only a few yards away from the screen. Her dark golden eyes narrow slightly. "My Tallests? It's been a while. To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?" she immediately questions. "Always so serious…" Purple mutters before speaking up. "By now you must have heard about our Blood Sport 2 challenge? There will be particular threats to the empire participating in the challenge, so we'll need you to join and 'take care of them', just to ensure there won't be any dangerous winners." She sighs, crossing her arms in front of herself, head tilting to one side. "Seems like such threats would just eliminate each other… But if you insist, Sirs... How much should I expect in payment?" She inquires. "We'll pay double your usual fee, provided you… what's the word I'm looking for?" Red trails off, glancing at Purple. "Survive?" Purple questions. "Yes… Survive" Red finishes.

Zergarikiaka remains silent for a moment, mentally debating taking on the challenge. She soon flashes a grimace. "My Tallests, you have yourself… an assassin." She comments. She raises her right hand and gives the Tallests a respectful salute. With that, the holographic screen fades away, momentarily displaying the irken insignia again. She drops her hand and turns away from the now barren wall, with an expression of thought. It would be foolish to even think for a moment that her upcoming task would be easy at any point. In truth, there would be a decent risk that she would be among those who will die – but it was a risk she would take, if not for the Empire, for the monies. Her grimace pulls into a grin, and a soft laugh escapes her. "Zerg… greed truly is your greatest downfall." She comments out loud. She sobers up quickly, and drops her arms to her sides, hands delving into her lab coat's pockets. She remains silent for a moment, listening to the subtle thrum of generators and lesser computers echoing through the otherwise quiet lab. She begins to walk back down the hall. "Computer, open a path to Vault 716 and open the vault for me." She orders simply. The metal ground begins to glow a silvery tone, and white lines flash across the floor, outlining the locations of each Plexiglas cubical. Each cubical and their contents begin to sink under the glowing floor, being lowered to the next floor. As they disappear from view, the soft thrumming of machinery intensifies into more of a roar, echoing out threw the hollowed out platform. The floor returns to its dull gray tile state, though it trembles and shudders as a metal case is elevated threw a newly opened hole in the center of the floor.

Sharp clanks echo out, as hatches flip open. The metal case groans and slowly draws open, releasing a cool blast of air and mist. A light within activates, splashing light onto a wide array of unusual weapons, ranging from large cannon-styled lasers with multiple batons, to handheld sized devices with the external shape of spearheads, to more familiar designed weapons such as sniper rifles, automatic pistols, irken military standard lasers, and grenades. Behind a glass door within the vault, several vials containing varied colored serums, chemicals, vaccines, tranquilizers, and poisons were assorted. Carefully shelved between each weapon's holding places is the appropriate ammo to go with said weapon. It was only natural that the vault did not carry only weapons and serums, but enough ammo to supply a squadron for a month. Zerg reaches into the vault, and extends the tip of her right hand index finger's claw to about two inches, and slips it into a locking mechanism like a key. With an easy twist of the wrist, the glass door clicks open. She retracts her claw back into her hand, and opens the door. Deftly, she removes the case containing the assorted serums and such, closing it and stepping out of the vault. "Now computer, send the vault to the Voot Runner's docking bay. I'll need everything that will possibly fit restocked into my ship. Come dusk, I shall be departing for the blood Sport planet. Before I leave though, I shall need you to compose a map of the planet in question and download it into the Runner." She orders, stepping away from the case as the metal door slides shut. "Right away." The female voice responds. The ground begins to tremble again, as a lift begins to push upward from under the vault, elevating it to the highest floor above. The room begins to return to its previous state.

As the room completely settles into its previous condition, Zerg steps into one of the many glass walled rooms, and places the case onto a metal table and pops the case back open. She begins to remove varied syringes and medical looking tools from the surface of the table, and stocks them into the case with the vials already inside. Not even considering the addition odd, she also adds to the cased assortment, tools that would frequently be used in welding. To compete in a game of murder and bloodshed, it would naturally be an advantage to any biologist-turned-assassin to carry weapons beyond the typical projectile and melee weapon. Biological weapons and injections serve every bit as well, anyway. Further, it was a benefit to consider treatments for accumulated injuries that would likely come up, just so she could last longer. Then some mechanical repair knowledge and tools might come in handy as well…

Closing the case again, and carrying it with her by her right hand, she stepped out of the Plexiglas cubicle and threw the hall, until she reached the one elevator in her entire lab that would lead either in or out. A security access lock was stationed beside the metal doors, designated to prevent the dropping in of unwelcome guests, and the escape of unwilling test subjects. With her free, albeit under developed left hand, she typed in a series of numbers, soon resulting in the elevator doors sliding open. She presses the highest button on the panel inside, after stepping in. The doors slide shut behind her, and the elevator begins to rise. Upon reaching the highest floor, the doors again slide open, and Zerg steps out. From the ceiling, a long metal arm had extended and unraveled into many metal claws, each delicately reaching into the already present vault and extracting the varied weapons, then with the precision only a machine could carry, places them into the previously empty back section of a painted black Voot Runner. The Voot Runner itself was already active and levitating a good fifteen inches off the platform below it. The metal arm recoils away from the vault after placing the last of the stored items into the Voot Runner. Its attachments compress and clip into the main body of the arm, and a claw opens at the very end, opening a large red metal eye, which revolves to gaze upon the owner of the base. "Do have a pleasant trip, Master Zergarikiaka." The female voice comments promptly. Zerg flashes a smirk at the metal eye. "Hard to tell if you are being ironic, or polite." She notes, then looking up through the base's ceiling. The rooftop hatch had begun to open, leading a clear runway for the docked ship to depart. The light of the sun had grown faint, into the reddish orange shade of the late evening. A cool air breathed threw the docking bay, carrying in the scent of autumn.

Under the rapidly falling light, Zerg stepps into the spacecraft and takes her place in the pilot's seat. The plasma window forms over the front of the ship, and is followed by the engines beginning to roar. She quickly checks the touch screen on the ships desktop, running one long finger over the screen until a map to the Blood Sport planet pops up, followed by an image of the planet itself and its terrain. "Good work computer." She complements quickly, then barely giving the machine the time to respond before driving the ship out of the dock and into the sky. The city her base had been stationed within fell rapidly out of view, soon disappearing into the blue and green terrain of the planet, which itself swiftly becomes no more than another spec among trillions of stars. Even the stars roll away like a scroll, or perhaps more like an old Star Wars movie.


	2. Round 1: Zeron Von Duke

Blood Sport 2 – Round 1.

Zergarikiaka VS Zeron Van Duke

The industrial zone of the Blood Sport planet is a twisted collaboration of unfinished projects, and abandoned machinery. Electrical crimson and violet LED light eyes of various machines stare hopelessly into the darkness of the night. Occasionally, something will move, collapse, moan, or spark; as if to plead that it could still be made useful, although perhaps only with some repairs. Meanwhile other things simply wait in eternal silence to rust over and dissolve into corroded dust. High above the air, a much customized and somewhat oversized black-painted Voot Runner silently cuts through the air, seeking out a decent landing place. Its headlights pass over a sizeable flat surface on top of a long abandoned building. The ship glides over the structure, hovering in place for a moment before landing, lights dying prior to landing to protect against an early encounter with any other participants in the area.

Inside, a holographic image of a Vort scientist appears over the dashboard. Zerg raises a brow slightly. "Mar, how'd you get a transmission threw? I had all signals cut already." She questions. The image of the Vortian crosses his arms and smirks knowingly. "Well you know how I've always been able to hack just about any form of technology… but eh, that's not really important." He pauses, Zerg resting her head in the palm of her left hand, leaning somewhat against the dashboard. "Ahem… anyway, I managed to get some information on your first opponent. You've been matched against a guy called Zeron Van Duke - A soldier from the Mazia." He informs. Zerg continues to look just barely impressed. "Anything else?" she asks, hoping not to get an overly detailed description. "Yeah, apparently this guy had been modified for an 'iron man' project… His body had been filled with a liquid metal that is supposed to make him harder to kill… And that's pretty much everything I've been able to pull up on him so far... but knowing you, you'll probably learn more once you run into him." he explains. Zerg finally looks interested. "Huh, thanks for the heads up." She comments, then hovering one hand over the touch screen of her Voot Runner's dashboard, about to close the transmission. "One more thing... Be careful Zerg." He adds. Zerg nods once, then flashing a grin, letting her fangs show. "I can't promise anything." She comments, then closing the transmission.

The plasma window lowers, and Zerg steps out, promptly armed with a sustainable number of arrowhead-shaped bombs, medical and welding tools, and serums pocketed away for quick use, and single standard grade irken militia laser held in her left hand. In an area as riddled with mechanical devices and potentially exploitable terrain as this, it seems a silly idea to carry too much. Even beside the potential use of anything lying around, there was the idea of not weighing herself down and making herself an easier target. She crouches low to the metallic flooring and signals for her ship to return to orbit, only leaving the spot she arrived in once the ship was out of range for potential thieves. Deciding it best to get off the rooftop, she looks down off the ledge of the building, squinting against the darkness to the ground below. A moment later she teleports down into the ally immediately between the building she was on, and the nearest neighbor; a smallish office building, run down and splattered with occasional broken windows and locked steel doors.

Meanwhile, a militant looking figure walks the dark streets below. He wears a uniform rather unique in contrast to the typical Irken, appearing to have a particularly German air to it. Both on his hat and shirt, the symbol of the Mazia could clearly be seen. His face bore strong, handsome features, and a single, highly geometric tattoo under one eye that gave him an almost digital appearance. From under his hat, long locks of black hair could be seen, tied behind his head. Holstered at his side, he carries a pistol, along with a dagger, and finally over his back he carries a rather frightening weapon with striking similarities to a multi-barreled bazooka, though more like a massively elaborate Missile Launcher, prepped with a large belt of missiles. Stern yellow eyes sweep the rigid landscape from under the brim of his hat, alert and seeking out any threat. For him, this place was such filth, like the city, albeit not as crowded. There may not have been many, if any, citizens left in the area, but the stink and spirit of the industrial area was still as corrupt as if it were still well inhabited. The blood stains from past battles did nothing to improve the feel of the area. A strand of electricity flickers off of a rusting over street light, casting fickle illumination across the street in front of the ally, and momentarily illuminating the militant irken and casting his shadow across the nearby buildings.

Catching sight of her first target, Zerg grins to herself and pulls four arrowhead-shaped bombs from her lab coat pocket. At this point, she was still unnoticed… a little fact that made life as an assassin easier. "Hrmph… still nothing." Zeron grumbles to himself. He suddenly turns toward the ally, antennae perked and eyes widened as small metal devices shot out of the dark alley. With a quick movement, he leaps backwards, each arrowhead shaped object striking the ground where he had previously been. Upon impact with the ground, they burst and release explosions with a strangely particular radius of three feet, followed by a minor shockwave which kicks up dust and corrosion from the ground. Not waiting for further attacks to come at him, Zeron Van Duke takes aim at the alley with his giant gun and opens fire. Missiles rip into the alley, blasting holes into the steel walls and causing trash to catch fire, illuminating the formerly dark area. When no continued attacks come at him, he lowers the weapon, raising a brow. It couldn't have been over with already…

He soon notices a shadowed figure escape the flames by darting threw a newly opened hole in the office building, disappearing inside. Without hesitation, he runs into the alley, and threw the hole in the building. The inside was dark, cold, quiet, and the air was thick with dust. In the quiet, Zeron could hear the sound of footsteps heading away from him. "Get back here!" he demands, running in the direction he hears movement in. Lugging his big gun on his shoulder, he wasn't able to run as fast as his assailant, but he could at the least keep up. A decent way ahead, Zerg looks confidentially back over her shoulder, not slowing down for even a moment. Always thinking ahead, she was mentally plotting out how to deal with this iron man. She'd wear him out, shed as much of his blood as she could, and when the time is right; she'd deliver a fatal injection. Perhaps later opponents wouldn't need the injection to finish them off, but an enemy with metal in his blood would not be likely to die from a few flesh wounds. Laser shots, contained explosions, and stabbings would probably only slow him down at best.

She soon reaches the end of a hall, coming across a door with the picture of fire and a stairwell under a small window. She grabs the handle and twists it; opening the door and stepping threw, and then closes it behind her. She steps away from the door, and looks up the flight of metal stairs. From the ground floor, she could make out three levels upward and one down. She teleports one flight upward and finds the door to the second floor to be unlocked. She steps threw, closing it behind her as well, then extends her claw from her right index finger, and slides it into the locking mechanism and locks it. Chances were the door would be blown apart once her trigger happy enemy catches up, but that would simply serve her in warning of his coming close. She leans back against the locked door, taking in a calm breath, then coughing from the dusty air. "Urgh… This place needs janitorial service drones or something…" she complains to herself. She stands strait again, and walks through the second floor's hall, relying on the moonlight filtering thru the windows to light the way. Upon reaching the end of the hall, she pulls out another handful of arrowheads, and lightly tosses them into the air. She telekinetically holds them in midair, waiting for her target to arrive.

From the ground floor, Zeron hears a cough, and looks up at the ceiling. He points his big gun at the ceiling, aiming for where he heard the cough, and then hesitates. He wasn't exactly an idiot… if he blew a hole in the second floor of a building in such poor condition; chances were it'd cave in on him. He lowers his weapon, and heads for the stairs. Upon actually reaching the second floor, he finds the door to be locked. Annoyed, he aims his pistol at the lock of the door, and fires, successfully blowing a hole in it. The door swings open with a light kick to the base. Zeron quickly dives to the ground, anticipating some kind of projectile attack, and rolls away from the door. At the end of his roll, he balances on one knee, pointing his pistol at the figure across the corridor and opening fire. Zerg holds her free hand ahead of herself, and snaps her index finger against her thumb, sending arrowheads at Zeron one at a time. Just like outside, they explode on contact with any solid object they connect with. One strikes Zeron's pistol, creating a sharp metal-on-metal screech as it cuts across, and passes into the wall behind him and bursting, opening a small hole in the wall. Yet another manages to cut into a corroded fire extinguisher and bursts within it, causing foam to spew across the floor and splatter over the ceiling and remaining windows. One manages to cut into Zeron's right arm, and burst, burning his arm and causing a half centimeter deep gash at best. All the rest manage to collide with oncoming bullets and burst in the air, creating some illumination in the unlit corridor.

With the brief blessing of light, he faces his opponent, for the first time actually managing to get a decent look at her. Zeron looks thoughtfully at the appearance of his first opponent. "A woman?! How the heck did I get matched up against a woman in the first round?!" he grumbles, disgusted with how the contest had been set up so far. Zerg tilts her head slightly at the comment, placing one hand on her hips. The light manages to fade away, back into pure moonlight. "You didn't think this contest was completely masculine, did you?" she comments. Zeron sighs. "My apologies. That must have come across quite sexist." He states bitterly. Zerg waves a hand dismissingly. "Don't worry about it. Just avoid letting that little fact lure you into taking it easy. That… now that would be an insult." She responds, smirking almost playfully. "Naturally…" He retorts, remaining quite serious, expression remaining cold. She holsters her laser, and crosses her arms behind herself, resting one hand in the palm of the other. Zeron lowers his pistol, raising a brow. He stands upright, unsure of what his foe was up to. Zerg walks across the hall to where Zeron stands. A trace of violet overlaps her naturally golden eyes, amethyst gem glowing mildly in the dark room. Within the moment, she was able to read a few interesting facts about her opponent threw his own mind… facts that she could use to tear him down from the inside when spoken.

"So, I understand you're the Mazi's 'perfect' soldier." Zerg comments bluntly, holding a composed charm. He grimaces and re-aims his pistol, taking aim but not yet pulling the trigger. She chuckles, hardly phased by the pistol aimed at her. Touching the tip of the pistol with one finger, she pushes it to one side without knocking it from his hand. "Gunpoint in a conversation? Is that how yua react to every girl?" she rhetorically asks, getting close to his face. Her eyes again return to their normal coloring, and break from Zeron's. Zerg suddenly drops her minor act of being 'feminine'. Moving while Zeron's guard was dropped, she grabs him by the shoulders and forces him against the nearest wall. She scoffs, flashing a creepier grin. "You don't need to answer that. I know you don't. After all, you're married, correct? And of all things, to a filthy human girl." she challenges.

Half startled that this girl could know something like that, and half stunned that she could so easily change from being almost polite to vicious, Zeron chose against a verbal retort. Utilizing a superior level of strength, he pushes himself off the wall and swings an arm out, knocking Zerg off him. In the force of his escape, he knocks her to the floor against the wall he had just been pinned against. He steps around her and aims his pistol. "Who the heck are you to know something like that? One of Veris's spies?" he demands. Zerg sits up, looking flatly at the pistol. "I have no place in his lot, neither am I with any affiliate or foe of the Mazia." She states evenly. She stands back up, his pistol following her movements. "Zeron Von Duke…" she states the name formally. "I am none other, than the Tallest's own hired assassin, typically called upon to eliminate defects and threats to the empire. By name, I am Zergarikiaka… but do call me Zerg." She introduces herself. "And you… to have 'feelings' and matrimony to a human…" she trails off, threateningly. She steps away from the wall, watching Zeron carefully, and vice versa. "Are an abomination… and thus, a defect in the eyes of the empire." She adds cruelly. Horrified by Zerg's words, Zeron retorts. "Silence!" he nearly roars. Almost ignoring the outburst, Zerg takes a step toward the now outraged soldier. "Ah… I struck a nerve, haven't I?" she laughs.

She half salutes mockingly at Zeron, and steps away from him. Ever like the soldier he is, he reacts as trained to the sight of a hostile enemy, by opening fire. Moving quickly, Zerg dives away from the first few shots and dashes toward an already broken window. She easily leaps out and lands just outside the building, on her feet. Without a trace of hesitation, she sprints into the virtual junk yard of abandoned working machines, returning gunfire with laser fire as she goes. Aiming not to lose track of his opponent due to a simple escape maneuver, Zeron walks to the broken window and continues to shoot out from there, until Zerg manages to escape view. Checking his pistol, he notices the ammo running low. He steps away from the window and removes the barrel from his pistol, then reloads and replaces it. He notices that again there was no return fire to indicate where his enemy is positioned. Grumbling to himself, he switches weapons back to his big gun. He returns to the window and fires a single shot into the mess of abandoned working devices, successfully blowing something up with the shot.

With bullets flying after her, Zerg makes a point to hustle into the array of abandoned machines, their metal frames serving well enough to block stray bullets. Upon escaping sight of Zeron, she ceases fire, and steps behind a large arachnid-like machine that might have once served to slice down trees in the relatively nearby forest zone. She takes the moment of ceasefire to holster her laser, and takes out a syringe filled with a dark red serum. She removes the plastic safety cap from its place around the needle, and delicately places the ready syringe back in her lab coat, flicking the useless cap over one shoulder. A single missile fires from Zeron's big gun, from a point out of sight, and blasts a groaning machine several meters away from her own position. Zerg sighs and rubs the back of her head with one hand, as if she were developing a headache. In truth, she preferred to fight hand to hand, over shootouts. She wouldn't continue with this strategy for much longer. She looks up at the machine she chose to take refuge behind, and notices that it seemed to be mostly intact. By all means it could probably still run if given the opportunity.

Taking the laser back out, she looks past the blade-based limbs of the machine, and takes aim in the direction she came from. Carrying much heavier weapons than his adversary, Zeron chooses not to simply dive out the window and run into the halted construction zone and waste even more energy than he had at the start of the fight. Instead, he walks, grimacing in the knowledge that he could be attacked out of the darkness again at a moment's notice or less. From what he could tell at this point, he is being pulled into a sort of 'cat and mouse' fight. He calmly heads back to the first floor of the office building, and out thru the hole he had blasted into it previously. He walks out of the alley and readies his pistol, stepping into the halted construction zone.

Sure enough, as he walks into the jungle of steel and wire, laser shots burst out of the camouflage of night. Problem was that this time he couldn't clearly make out where the laser fire was coming from. A surge of pain cuts thru Zeron's side as a shot clips him, and another catches him on the side of the face. Naturally, this would not be nearly enough to so much as slow him down. Having already been made into a literal iron man, a few wounds wouldn't afflict him nearly as much as others. Even though he couldn't see her in the darkness, he could still take a good guess at her position now that shots were fired. He takes aim with his pistol, and fires off seven shots, some of which striking metal, while others miss entirely. Annoyed at the lack of success at this point, Zeron again switches weapons.

Taking aim with his big gun, Zeron fires back. A missile cuts into another long unused machine, specifically in a gas tank, successfully blowing it up. Zerg glances away from her target at the explosion. The fire from the blast lit the area to a degree, and reveals her location. She curses under her breath and faces Zeron again, stepping out from behind the spider-like machine. Evidentially stealth attacks weren't going to work very much longer on this guy. Flames lick past the bombed machine, catching on leaked oil and spreading across the ground, casting shadows across the area like dancing devils. As fire burns the corroded ground, it catches and burns patches of a noxious liquid gas that must have come from a dead machine, releasing a sickening odor into the air.

Zeron grins, almost attempting to be as mocking as his enemy. "So, are you about ready to stop running away?" he challenges. Zerg doesn't respond to the statement with any verbal retort, though her eyes again change color to that freakish violet tone. Zeron cringes inwardly, and pulls the trigger of his big gun, only to be surprised when nothing fires out. He could tell it wasn't out of ammo, so the only other possibility is that a missile got caught in its barrel, or the trigger stuck. To be certain, he pulls the trigger again, barrels revolving once to fire from another; and again finding it not working. Zerg smirks, flashing a fang. He curses loudly to himself. The gun began to buzz and whine. Telekinetically held within the barrel, the missiles explode inside the gun, effectively blowing it up on Zeron's shoulder. Caught in the blast, Zeron is blown along with the source of the blast, onto the ground several yards away. His gun lands directly on top of him, burning metal singeing his back, even threw his clothes. Aggravated, Zeron deals with the burns to his flesh, attempting to roll over and push the ruined weapon off of him. Watching sadistically, Zerg muffles a laugh behind her free hand, quickly receiving a glare from the struggling Zeron. Having too much trouble to focus fully on the damaged weapon alone, he grips his pistol and forces himself to take aim, being burned with each movement. Noticing Zeron going for his remaining projectile weapon, Zerg snaps out of her sadistic pleasure and aims her laser, sighing. "Right… best put you out of your misery." She comments, pulling the trigger.

Not sparing half a second, Zeron opens renewed fire with his pistol, expecting his opponent to attempt dodging and running again. Surprisingly, Zerg remains in place; letting shots intended for a moving target pass her by, and holds fire with her laser. She only shoots once with specific aim, holding onto the trigger to send a prolonged burst, this time not at Zeron himself, but at the pistol. The shot makes contact with the barrel of the pistol, and knocks it out of Zeron's hand, burning it in the process. One of the final bullets the pistol shoots before knocked to the ground successfully strikes its target, imbedding itself and passing clean threw part of Zerg's left arm, causing blood to gush out, another striking her arm brace itself. Zerg gives a shocked grunt, and narrows her eyes in irritation, dropping her standard laser to the burning ground. All four of her shoulder spikes stick upward, twisting slightly as they start adjusting levels of adrenaline, endorphins and blood serotonin in her body in response to the wound. An LED light on her arm brace goes out, the rest of the device sparking dangerously, signaling a reduced level of function in her artificial nerves.

With his ruined big gun cooling down after its explosion, Zeron manages to push it off himself, having some trouble due to his hand now being singed as well. His body had become quite coated in burns and open cuts, uniform bloodied and torn, hat lost completely in the debris. He stands up, shakily. The toxic smell in the air continues to thicken. With little choice but to breathe in the wretched smells of burning metal and gas, Zeron begins to cough and dizzily step back. Zerg turns away from Zeron, looking back at the machine she was hiding behind moments ago. She looks particularly focused, eyes and gem glowing yet again. Zeron pulls out his dagger, and hides his mouth behind the nook of his arm. He charges foreword, using what strength he has left in his muscular body. Zerg glances back at him, though she keeps her focus on the machine. She couldn't control the whole thing from the ground… in truth her telekinetic ability isn't as strong as some others might have… but she could move part of it. A blade-like limb lifts off the ground, and bends so its edge aims at Zeron. He looks up at the suddenly moving machine, and skids to a halt. It swings its blade down at Zeron. He holds his free hand and dagger-wielding hand to the air, close together, and miraculously catches the blade between his palms. By now, he too is running on no more than adrenaline and the simple desperation to survive.

Moving suddenly, Zerg takes a few running steps toward Zeron while he is preoccupied. In mid run, she teleports, closing the distance between her and Zeron, then reappears directly in front of him. Her claws extend from each of her right hand's fingertips, reaching about four inches each. Using the momentum from running before teleporting, she swipes her claws at Zeron, much like a cat would to beat off a dog. With his hands already occupied, Zeron was an open target for Zerg's direct attack, receiving four distinguished gashes across his belly. Screaming in pain, his knees buckle and blood runs freely out of his gut along with liquid metal. The weight of the robot's attacking arm weighs him down, forcing him to his knees.

Zeron leans back and suddenly lets go of the machine's limb, rolling backwards in attempt to escape. The blade slams into the ground with a heavy clang. Thankfully, it doesn't raise and attack again. He quickly stands up, tightening his grip on his dagger. Zerg darts around the blade, and continues to attack directly. He twists his blade around by his wrist, and manages to parry her claws away in time to protect his face, and again to block his chest. Sharp, knife-like claws swipe dangerously close to his admittedly handsome face, just barely missing. His defense is quick, and in fact he manages to keep a few seconds ahead of his opponent, though her attacks came rapidly. Zerg suddenly stabs her claws strait foreword, and with both luck and skill, Zeron manages to just barely avoid them. Balance slightly off after missing such an attack; Zerg was vulnerable to melee strikes. Not missing his opportunity, Zeron swings his right leg upward and above Zerg, then drop kicking her to the filthy rust-polluted ground.

Zerg grunts with the impact to the ground, and forces herself to keep moving. She is still in a better state than her rival, and therefore in no position to worry. In fact, she decides, it's time to end this whole affair. Placing both hands to the ground, she pushes the upper half of her body off the ground, and swings her legs under herself, and her left passes further, under the very close by Zeron. Twisting around by the spine, she sweep kicks at his ankles, using the hook-like spikes at the sides of her boots to catch his leg and pull him to the ground while she recovers her own footing. Of course Zeron doesn't trip over completely, though he is thrown off balance, for but a moment. He reaches out and grabs her by a shoulder spike, stabilizing himself but again becoming less than guarded. "Don't touch that." Zerg growls in irritation, though probably more out of anxiety from the extra adrenaline, swinging her claws out to her side to meet Zeron, almost as if to smack him. This time, they succeed to slice across his face, puncturing his left eye in the process. Reeling back, Zeron covers his eye with his burned hand, and then pulls his hand away from his face to look at it. It was bloodied, but not a fatal wound. He curses her aloud, rage building in his cold voice, and then viciously striking at her with his dagger. The clean steel blade meets more flesh than bullets had managed, tasting blood from the side of her face, and bathing in blood from cutting across her torso, until its swiped out of Zeron's grip and thrown to the ground.

Turning her palms toward the sky, Zerg extends her claws to their full eight inch length. She stabs her claws clean threw Zeron's left shoulder, right under the clavicle, left hand gripping his opposite shoulder. A look of shock crosses Zeron's eyes, blood squirting out of his shoulder and spraying onto Zerg's lab coat, painting white fabric red. Not slowing down, she shifts her weight into her arms and literally flips over Zeron, doing a virtual handstand on his shoulders, and then coming down on the other side. Her feet touch down on the ground, and she crouches down, not yet pulling her hand from Zeron's shoulder. In the force of landing, she pulls him backward; tripping him into her erect shoulder spikes, effectively stabbing them clean threw his back, resulting in further flumes of iron liquid and blood spraying out. A pained scream punctures the air. Still not finished, Zerg pulls Zeron over her backside; her shoulder spikes ripping threw his back and nearly ripping his shoulders out completely in the process, then slams him down on the ground ahead of her. He struggles to resist, and is soon horrified to find that his arms had been rendered paralyzed by the sudden attack. Zerg flashes a sadistic grin, and stands, leaning to one side.

She pulls the syringe out of her pocket and bends down, then roughly jabs the needle into his torso and injects the lethal serum. "Zeron Von Duke… Perfect soldier of the Mazia… Your perfect record has been ruined." She mocks, standing up and watching him. Her shoulder spikes reposition their selves again, folding back behind her, effectively reducing the amount of adrenaline in her system and slowing her heart rate. The sun of the Blood Sport planet begins to rise, casting the fantastic shades of red and yellow across the previously dark sky. The fire meanwhile continues to spread. Zerg smirks to herself, watching the soldier die. "You know… I probably could have gone without ruining that face of yours." She comments to the corpse, crossing her arms and tilting her head to one side. "From what I can tell… you were probably quite attractive. It's a shame you were dedicated to some putrid human girl." She adds, then looking at her wounds, mostly consisting of stabs rather than gunshots. "… Darn it… I should have taken some bandages or medical tape with me." She grumbles, then looking at Zeron's body, quirking a brow as if she had come up with a simple solution. Crouching down at his side, she uses a claw to strip off sections of his shirt and fashion them into strips. With some coordination and backup use of her teeth, she ties the strips around her still bloody wounds. A moment later, she stands and heads on her way, leaving his ruined weapons with him. She didn't need them, and they'd weigh her down anyway.

The heavy smell of gas and burning metal continued to diffuse threw the industrial area, and the temperature slowly began to climb with the morning and the continued spread of flames. Having some aversion to the idea of sticking around any longer and risking carcinogenic fumes poisoning her, Zerg heads back toward the office building, and its neighboring building. She looks up at the reddening sky, and spots her nicely oversized Voot Runner returning to its previous landing location. The soft roar of its engines overpowers the distant crackling and snapping of fire. Without a comment, Zerg simply smiles to herself and teleports back to the rooftop. The large black vehicle lands in front of her, and lowers its plasma shield. She steps in and reaches under the pilot's seat. A low click echoes out, and a drawer opens underneath. She reaches into it and pulls out a roll of medical tape, then closes it again. With a little more digging thru supplies, Zerg restocks her carried amount of arrowhead bombs, and picks out another laser gun. She had left her last one in the virtual graveyard of machines, so it seemed a wise idea to pick up another, even if the model isn't quite the same.

She steps back out of the Voot Runner, and walks to the ledge of the building. She sits down and carefully removes the strips of cloth tied around her left arm and chest. Nonchalantly, she throws them into the wind, and delicately wraps up the stab wounds with the tape, careful not to trap her clothes against her skin with it in the process. Once finished, she looks at her left arm. The brace continues to spark. A stray volt sparks over the three spikes on the brace and singes her shoulder. Zerg winces slightly, and then sighs. "Right" she mutters, and then presses three fingers under the LED lights. With another resounding clank, the brace unlocks and falls unceremoniously to the cement ledge. The section of her arm previously covered by said brace is only a hodgepodge of thin neo-titanium cables and wires connecting to blood vessels and nerves, all carefully wrapped around her 'funny' bone. Some of said wires spark where a bullet can be seen stuck within. Her arm itself falls limp once the brace is removed; clinically dead. Absolutely lacking in squeamishness, she uses two claws to pull the bullet out, then pulls the the welding tool she had carried with her out of her lab coat pocket. As if it were routine maintenance, she activates the welding tool and touches it to the damaged wiring, effectively welding them back into place. Immediately afterwards, she uses the heat of the welding tool to cauterize her arm while it is still in a 'dead' state.

Quick repair completed, she turns off the welding tool and places it at her side to let it cool. She picks the brace back up and locks it back around her arm, and wraps some medical tape around the cauterized section of her arm. All three LED lights flare back to life, once again functioning properly. Behind her, a full body holographic image of Mar Sart appears from the ship. Zerg looks back, nearly jumping in surprise. Mar simply blinks. "Ah! Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." He apologizes briefly. Zerg shrugs dismissingly, and stands up. She steps off the ledge and toward the hologram. She grins playfully. "Probably wouldn't have been surprised if I weren't performing 'minor' surgery on myself." She jokes, and then looks serious again. "So… Who's next?" She asks bluntly. It didn't entirely matter to her who it was to be, but by all means she isn't going to stay in the industrial area. Instead, she'd be moving on for the city.


End file.
